Seven Not-So-Fun Facts About the Costs of Public Education

[roo_ster]

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2013/04/22/seven-not-so-fun-facts-about-the-costs-of-public-education/

1) Revenues collected by governments for public education in the United States totaled $593.7 billion. About $261.4 billion came from local sources, $258.2 billion from state sources, and $74 billion from federal sources.

2) That’s about $1,922 from each and every American.

3) Or $2,531 from each adult, 18 and older.

4) Or $4,567 from each non-farm American worker on a payroll.

5) That amounts to 11.4 percent of the average worker’s salary, or $2.20 per hour.

6) The average American employee thus works almost one hour every day to fund public schools.

7) It would take the entire salary of 14,842,500 employees to pay for U.S. public schools, equivalent to the entire retail trade workforce.

[MillCreek]

Interesting.  I wonder how much I work per day to fund the military, or welfare, or Social Security disability.

[Tallpine]

About 80% of property taxes go for schools.

Which gets to be a huge burden for older residents on a fixed income, expecting to live out their lives in their mortgage free home.

I think property taxes are reasonable for things such as streets and fire/police services which directly benefit property owners.

[cordex]

Interesting.  I wonder how much I work per day to fund the military, or welfare, or Social Security disability.

Well, assuming $593.7 billion works out to about an hour a day on education (based on the assumptions the article makes)...
1 hour 20 minutes each on Medicare and social security
1 hour 7 minutes for defense
22 minutes on interest
1 hour 41 minutes on everything else

Of course your state has to eat too ...